Generally, a vibrating pile driver actuates its vibrator to vibrate a chuck in the direction (usually, vertical direction) of piling while the pile is being held by the chuck to perform its operation in such a manner that the pile is sunken (driven) into the ground with the weights of the pile driver and the pile itself while frictional resistance between the pile and the ground is kept small. Also, as it is possible to keep the frictional resistance between the pile and the ground small by vibration, such operation is utilized for drawing from the ground the pile which has been driven thereinto.
The type of a vibrating pile driver of the kind is generally such that the driver is suspended from a crane or the like. However, in order to improve the mobility and the handling operativity, the applicant hereof has developed a vibrating pile driver 50, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, which comprises a coupling arm unit 12 attachable to the operational arm 5 of a construction machine such as a hydraulic shovel, etc., which is structured to allow its position shifted; a hanger unit 14 connected to this coupling arm unit 12, which is relatively rotated in the vertical plane and the horizontal plane; a main body 20 having a vibrator 15 for generating the exciting power and a chuck 16 holding a pile while being vibrated by the vibrator 15, which is connected to the hanger unit 14 and is relatively rotated in the vertical plane.
In a vibrating pile driver such as referenced by a numeral 50, the coupling arm unit 12, hanger unit 14, and main body 20 can interrelatedly change the positions thereof to adjust arbitrarily the direction of a pile or the direction of the piling operation, and at the same time, to perform the piling operation rapidly without a problem in a narrow place such as a farm road or an alleyway or in a place where buildings are in the immediate vicinity. Moreover, at the time of installing, removing, or replacing the pile, it is possible to install the pile sideways (in the horizontal direction) or to remove the pile from the chuck 16 after having rotated the main body 20 in the vertical plane to position the main body 20 horizontally against the hanger unit 14. Hence, these operations can be performed with ease and safety.
However, in the above-mentioned vibrating pile driver 50, the rotation of the hanger unit 14 against the coupling arm unit 12 in the horizontal plane and the vertical plane are respectively performed by an operator manually. Therefore, there are still problems encountered that these operations are not only troublesome and complicated, but present some aspects which requires a further consideration in respect of the safety.
With a view to solving these problems, the present invention has been designed, and an object thereof is to provide a vibrating pile driver which automatically performs the positional changes of the hanger unit and the main body without any manual operations by an operator.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a vibrating pile driver according to the present invention comprises fundamentally a coupling arm unit attachable to the operation arm, etc. of a construction machine such as a hydraulic shovel, etc.; a hanger unit connected to this coupling arm unit, which is relatively rotated in the vertical plan and the horizontal plane; and a main body having a vibrator for generating the exciting power and a chuck to be vibrated by the above-mentioned vibrator while holding the pile, which is connected to the above-mentioned hanger unit and is relatively rotated in the vertical plane.
Then, in addition to the above structure, a first rotation driving mechanism is provided between the coupling arm unit and the hanger unit to relatively rotate them in the horizontal plane and/or a second rotation driving mechanism is provided between the hanger unit and the main body to relatively rotate them in the vertical plane.